Making the Most Out of Guest Blogging

There have been a lot of great posts that talk about guest blogging and show you the value of reaching out to other authoritative blogs in your industry. However I thought I would take a different angle on this post and talk about what makes your guest post stand out from others who use the same strategy.

Find the Right Places to Blog

You want to be smart when it comes to finding the right blogs to write on. Especially if you have limited time and resources, you want to make sure you are picking and choosing your battles. Hopefully you have your finger on the industry pulse and know which blogs are the more popular ones in your niche. You can always use tools like Compete.com and Alexa.com to see approximately how much traffic they are getting to their site.

Contacting the Right Person

Make sure you do your homework and find the correct person to contact. Many blogs have a section that talk about the bloggers and their role related to the blog. If you can find an editor or blog owner, that is usually the ideal person to contact. You can also see who wrote the latest blog posts and see if they have an author profile to confirm that they are a writer for that blog and not just a guest blogger.

Once you have found the correct person, see if they have contact information posted publicly on the site. Look for an email address or twitter handle. You can also try a little trick I love to use in Google. Do a Google search for ” *@domain.com ” and it will help to find email addresses related to that domain.

Say the Right Things

Ok so you have found the right person to contact…so what do you say to them? Even though some blogs say they allow guest posting, many are very selective as to who they allow blog. I recommend writing a personalized e-mail to the primary blog contact, including the following information in your e-mail:

Use their name at the beginning of the email
Find something specific that you enjoy about their writing/blog
Give a very brief introduction as to who you are and what you do
Provide examples of some of your best writing
Provide a few possible blog titles/topics that you could write about for their blog
Possibly already have the blog post written and attach it for them to review
Thank them for the opportunity in advance and tell them you look forward to hearing back

Once you have done that you may want to follow up by sending a message to them on Twitter or Facebook. This is gives you another way to build rapport and remind them that you e-mailed them about a guest blogging request.

Write Your BEST Content

One of the main purposes of guest blogging is to make a name for yourself and help promote your website/blog or product/service. The best way to get noticed is by saving your BEST content for your guest posts. If you write a well-written, in-depth blog post for another website, it not only is appreciated by the blog owner, but can give you instant credibility with the readers of that blog. There is a good chance (if it’s your 1^st time guest blogging) that many of their readers have not read your content before, so having outstanding content can be a great way to get noticed.

Optimize Your Post

There are so many benefits to guest blogging, so it is important that you take full advantage of all of the opportunities it brings.

Control of the Anchor Text: Since you are the one writing the post, you will have full control over where and how you link to other websites. You should always try to find a relevant post on your blog or website that you can link to using the proper anchor text that you are trying to get that post or page to rank for in the search results.
Add a Complete Author Bio: Most blogs have a section for an “About the Author”, so use this area to tell people who you are and how they can contact you. Add links to your website, blog and social media profiles. Using a Gravatar helps so that people will be able to associate a face with your writing and blog.
Use Their Blog Format: Many bloggers don’t think about this, but creating a guest post that has a consistent format with the blog you are writing for, can go a long way. I know whenever someone guest blogs for me, I also appreciate it if it is formatted properly, so I don’t have to spend too much time adding images/headlines etc…

Promote Your Post

Touch base with the blog owner to find out when your post will be going live. This way you can prepare to promote it heavily across your social network. I always appreciate when bloggers go out of their way to promote their guest posts. That not only helps in gaining additional visibility for their post, but can drive new readers to the blog owners site.

Reply to Comments

One thing I learned when I first started blogging is that just because you write a guest post for another blog, doesn’t mean your work is over. Blog owners love when the author replies to their comments and engages with the readers. Going the extra mile and answering follow up questions or comments can really go a long way.

Build a Relationship with the Blog Owner

Whenever you write a guest post for someone else, start building rapport with them. Start to follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Start having conversations with them on these various social media outlets and start to share their content.

Try some of these tactics to help build your relationship:

Conduct an Interview with them
Ask them to guest write for your blog
Follow up to see who else they connect with. It can lead to other guest blogging opportunities
Ask them for advice on a product or project you are working on
See if they would be interested in advertising on your blog/site
Meet them offline (conferences, meetups, tweetups)

Know How to Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

Probably the best place to start is MyBlogGuest which is a great resource that connects bloggers and blog owners, making it easy to find great guest blogging opportunities. I recommend creating an account and connecting with others in your industry who are looking for quality bloggers who would like to write for their blog.

Do a few Google searches: